


Elodea

by secrettemplars (tricycleamoving)



Series: drowning in the second person [2]
Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Genderqueer Character, Genderqueer Furihata, Kelpies, Other, POV Second Person
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-19
Updated: 2015-04-19
Packaged: 2018-03-24 19:16:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,059
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3781300
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tricycleamoving/pseuds/secrettemplars
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>It is a Wednesday, and you are standing in the ocean.</i>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Written for akafuri drabble weekend.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Elodea

**Author's Note:**

> Yet again, the akafuri chat enables me to write out another au drabble.... Written for akafuri drabble weekend!
> 
> Standard characterization applies, Genderqueer Furi (he/him pronouns) and... well I mean Akashi's not human so. I used they/them pronouns for them as I usually do, though. 
> 
> There's not going to be really any notes for this fic haha, since I wrote it on such short notice and meant it to be deliberately very vague?? I probably have like... five at the most. So yeah, enjoy!
> 
> Written while listening to '[Stronger (Garnet's Lament)](http://aberrantkenosis.tumblr.com/post/116364642350/uh-so-i-changed-the-instruments-and-vocals-of)', originally from Steven Universe, remixed by aberrantkenosis.

The water is cold when the waves crash into the shore, splashing against your thighs. It is a Wednesday, and you are standing in the ocean. It is a Wednesday and you are drenched: your dress shirt is soaked, the remnants of a bouquet sinking to the ocean floor, your blazer lost to the sea, and your eyes, drowning.

Your body shivers from the cold, yet you feel nothing.

The beach is empty behind you, and you are thankful. You do not want to be saved. You do not need to be saved. If you concentrate, you can still hear cheering in the distance, bells ringing and children laughing and the press of his lips against yours before he walks away from you. Before you walk away from him.

You still remember the way the bouquet felt when it landed in your hands. It felt like someone spitting at your feet.

So entrenched in your thoughts are you that you don't even notice the water stilling around you. The atmosphere turns cold, to the point where even the heat of the sun shining on your face turns cold, as if the very life of the space around you was being sucked out and devoured.

"Hello, stranger," A voice ringing like low-pitched bells say, and it is only then that you notice the creature at your feet, kneeling on the ocean floor with the waves tickling their neck, looking up at you with eyes like frozen fires, crackling red and yellow. They have hair as red as roses and as spiky as thorns, water weeds tangled in their hair, and you think that if you touched them you would prick yourself. They are beautiful and naked and not human and probably here to kill you.

You wouldn't mind that, you don't think.

"Hello," you say in reply, and it is the first word you have said to anyone in the past hour. Your throat feels scratchy.

The creature looks at you, with your wet shirt and your eyes that cannot cry anymore, and stands up. The water runs off their body but yet the seas stay still, and you think that the creature is going to kill you now.

(They don't.)

Instead, they raise a hand to your eyes and wipe off the lingering remnants of salt water that remain there. It is then that the tears start to flow again, your body crumpling like used paper as strong arms hold you up, your fingers digging so hard into your skin you almost draw blood. The creature says nothing, but continues to support you anyway. The two of you stand there, for a while.

"What ails you?" the creature asks, after a while, "I understand that today is meant to be a day of unity and celebration, from what I've observed."

Those words pierce you harder than any knife could, and your eyes continue to bleed out the wounds that your heart has sustained. The creature just holds you tighter, keeps you from falling into the ocean and drowning in your own heartbreak. You wish that the creature had just killed you outright.

The creature falls silent again, not making a sound until your sobs become whimpers become silence. They just stand there, holding you, and even when you can stand they don't let go. You find that you rather like it - the warmth of being held by a stranger is preferable than the cold sting of abandonment.

"He left me," you say, and it hurts so you say it again, "He left me."

"He left you," the creature parrots back, "So?"

" _So?_ " you cry out, nails digging into your palm, the words pouring out of your mouth like toxic sludge, "I gave my _life_ to him. I loved him and lived for him and gave everything I had and more when he asked me to, and all I get in response after two years of exhausting myself for him is a simple 'sorry, I lied to you, I don't love you, let's be friends'?"

You almost scream out the last few words, and the tears leave your eyes again. Even after he left you, you are still crying for him. You don't know if you'll ever stop crying for him.

"I had to sit there, this morning. I had to put on these fancy clothes and paste a smile on my face as he stood there with his new beloved," you continue, spitting out the word as if it was poison, "And then the bells were ringing and the bouquet was in my hand and I could feel the smile on his face, mocking me from up on his pedestal, like he knew the cruel irony behind it all."

"The poor girl," you say, your hands trembling, "She doesn't even know. One day he's going to be done with her and she'll be tossed aside like trash, just like I was. Maybe she'll even find herself here like I am, after that."

"You're not angry at the girl?" The creature asks, the warmth of their hands on your cold back seeping into your skin.

"No," you reply, "She's just another toy for him to play with, a newer and shinier version of me. It's _him_ I abhor, yet it's also him that I still adore."

"So this is what they meant," the creature says after a moment of silence, moving a hand to wipe at your tears yet again, "They said I would meet someone like you at some point in my life."

"What?" you ask, tilting your head.

"Creatures like me all possess a special ability, but we can only use it sparingly," the creature says, their thumb stroking your cheek in such a soothing rhythm that you feel like you could fall asleep right there and then, close your eyes and sink into their embrace, "And it is said that all of us will run into a human, some time or another, one so filled with distress that we would be compelled to use our special ability to help them."

"And that person is me?" you ask.

"Yes," the creature replies, a sympathetic smile on their face. Your knees feel like buckling again.

"What's your name, sad one?" the creature asks.

"Furihata Kouki," you say, and the creature blinks in surprise at how fast you give your name to them.

"What's yours?" you ask in return. Names have power, and power is usually not given up so easily, especially not for one who is not human, but you think the creature will tell you anyway.

"I am named Akashi Seijuurou," the creature whispers in your ear, after a moment's deliberation. The air around them changes slightly after the revelation, like the feeling when someone takes a deep breath for the first time and exhales. The sea continues to stay still around them, but it is no longer cold.

"Akashi Seijuurou," you whisper back, and your body grows warm. Something foreign starts to grow, deep within your gut. Something that feels a little bit like strength.

"Furihata Kouki," Akashi says, murmuring into your ear like they were sharing an intimate secret, "I can make you forget your sorrows.

"I can make you _stronger_."

"What?" you whisper, your puffy red eyes widening, " _How?_ "

"I can make you like me," Akashi says, "You will be able to travel the depths of the seas unhindered, you will be able to move undetected, you will have the strength of a thousand humans."

"And most importantly," Akashi continues, murmuring into your ear, "You will have the strength to make sure that people like _him_ will never hurt another person ever again."

You freeze, your hands hanging limply by your sides. Your blood freezes in your veins but yet your heart burn, something deep within you yearning for vengeance and justice and blood smeared on your hands like common paint. Akashi lets go of you, and takes a step back into the waves. Under the harsh light of the sun and against the soft blue of the sky, they look like a king.

"What if I say no?" you ask. Your legs are frozen stiff.

"Then I will leave, and you can continue with what you were doing before." Akashi replies.

To be a monster or to be dead? You don't know which is better. You have no friends, no family: you severed all those ties long ago when you gave it all up for _him_. There is nothing left for you anymore, so no one will miss you regardless of what you choose.

Well, maybe Akashi would miss you, if only for a little bit.

Akashi's eyes are still like ice chips, but they look warmer when they're directed at you. _It's not so bad_ , you think, _Trap or not, you're going to die either way_. If you had to choose between dying at the hands of the sea or at the hands of Akashi, you would choose the latter. It is always better to die in the embrace of someone who cares.

You wade a few steps forward, the waves now at your stomach, until you are yet again pressed up against Akashi, your arms wrapped around their waist.

"Do you have an answer, Furihata Kouki?" Akashi asks, hands gently cradling your cheeks.

"Yeah," you reply, "Yeah."

Akashi looks at you, really _looks_ at you, before a smile blooms on their face, radiant like the sun. It is a gentle smile. It is a terrifying smile.

It is a beautiful smile.

Suddenly, you feel warm lips pressed against yours, gentle and soft. The hands cradling your cheeks are warm too, and you sink into the kiss, relishing in that exhilarating feeling growing in your chest. Akashi's eyes are lidded when they pull away, eyelashes brushing against their cheek when they blink. There is a small smile on their face when they look at you, and you have never felt so warm.

Akashi leans in for another kiss and you meet them halfway, moving your hand up to tangle in their hair as you kiss them like you're drowning, like this is the last kiss you'll ever have. They latch on to you with equal fervor, drinking you up until you're lightheaded and giddy, until your legs have no more strength and your knees are buckling but _still_ they continue to kiss you.

Then you're sinking, down into the depths of the ocean as the waves lap up above you, the water soaking you to the bone as you are driven down and down and _down_. You feel the rush of water moving against you as you dive down with Akashi, but still you kiss them, paying no heed to the change in surroundings.

Only when Akashi wrenches themselves away, lips swollen and red, do you even attempt to open your eyes. The seawater stings your eyes but you open them anyway. You hold your breath and look at Akashi.

You are not yet deep enough in the ocean for all light to be drowned out, as patches of sunlight filter through the waves above and shine down on the both of you. Akashi's red hair floats around them ethereally, while the sunlight creates a makeshift halo around their head. Akashi wades over to you, catching you in their arms before the current can separate you. They press a soft kiss to your lips one more time, and one more to your nose, before they lean in to whisper in your ear.

" _Breathe_ , Kouki," they say.

You breathe in.

 

* * *

 

The water is cold, and first thing you hear is the splashing of the waves. It is still a Wednesday (you think), and from the feel of hot sand under your fingertips you think you're on the shore. The beach is still empty. You feel the same, yet different.

"Wake up, Kouki," a voice says, and it feels like velvet to you. You know this voice, you think.

Memories float to your mind like flimsy bubbles, and you remember the color red. Red, like roses of a bouquet and the color of icy eyes and soft spiky hair in your hand. Red like lips pressed against yours and like the blood you want to spill on your hands. Red, like love and like vengeance.

"Wake up, Kouki," Akashi says again.

You open your eyes.

**Author's Note:**

> Notes:
> 
> 1\. Okay I know at a wedding the bride throws the bouquet and the groom throws the garter but idk it felt kinda gross to write about a garter floating in the sea lol. 
> 
> 2\. You should check out the song I wrote this to if you haven't already! It's super soothing, and ofc the original song from SU is amazing and great. 
> 
> 3\. This whole thing is based off the idea that mermaids drown men and teach other women how to breathe underwater and become mermaids themselves (to drown more men)! Except I made it darker and Akashi isn't a mermaid?? I don't really know what mythological creature Akashi is, but I based them off the Kelpie a little bit. 
> 
> 4\. Also this is part of a series! While writing this I realized that it somehow accidentally ended up paralleling _The Broad Stream Bore Her Far Away_ , so now this will be in the same series as that. Maybe if I write more second person stuff it'll end up in that series as well.
> 
> So yeah, that's it! I hope you enjoyed it, and feel free to leave a kudos, comment or bookmark if you feel like doing so!


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